Wednesday, May 28, 2008

I never envisioned my husband to be the type. You know the type - the one who 'clocks in' to work anytime of the day really coz he works from home. And before you go "aaawww... how lucky you are to have him at the house", let me just paint you a clearer picture.

Yes, The Husband does work from home, he's his own start-up firm and is doing just fine exploring what he loves most - working for himself, servicing client's financial needs. Working from home - that simply translates into working anytime, all the time. There's no fixed working hours with him. It's 'work for as long as I'm up' kinda thing. What's good though is, he's taken quite a bit of responsibility in attending to the running errands part of our home - mainly the school run and the getting take-out food for us. Before Baby Z came along, I cooked a bit. Now, I cook so rarely, our pantry might as well be empty. I do the rest of the cleaning up around the house, and the cooking, when it happens. Haha.

Oooh, but I digress. This entry is about The Husband, not about me. Back to it then ...In those typical mom-lit books that are ever-so-popular these days, often there's talk on moms managing school runs. Sometimes, lending a hand to fellow mommy friends in ferrying their kids as well. Car-pooling at its best, if you like. And then, in some of those said mom-lit books, there's one Daddy-cool who does the school run. Often, the portrayed Daddy-cool also just happens to be pretty darn hot for a Dad. So hot that the mommies 'secretly' outdo each other, in the hopes for even the slightest of glance from the Daddy-cool.

It's all fiction of course, but now that The Husband frequents Big Z's school more than I do, now that he does the school run, it would be rather amusing to have my other half as the Daddy-cool of the school run community. ;-)

It's a modern day tale then. Days when Daddies working from home, doing school runs and grocery shopping are common sights. I just hope, on my part personally, he won't take my place in attending morning brunches with my mommy friends. LOL.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

I realise i haven't done much updating on Big Z - not the way i used to before Baby Z came into our lives. It's the obvious really. The inevitable. You welcome a new baby, and suddenly your attention is split both ways, and many times, as much as you try to be the fair parent to both, often each child has his/her own agendas. So, it's not that i've abandoned spending time with Big Z, nor has it been that all I do is spend time with Baby Z. It's a balance that I've learned and still am grasping really to meet. One which entails me as equal as possible my time, my energy, my attention and my updates on both my lil ones, both my Zs. Any mother to more than one child I'm sure can relate to this. Well, at least, i'd like to believe there ARE those who can relate to this. There are, i suppose exceptional moms out there, who regardless of their herd size, still ace at managing their selves in between their respective young-lings. To those, many kudos to you! :-)

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A quick update on Big Z then.

In just slightly over 3 months time, he'll be all of 5 years. FIVE years!! How did that happen??

He's showing more interest in books and reading and is able to read a bit better now. Again, let's not get overly excited, he still has a long way to go, but i'm pretty happy with where he is now in terms of his reading progress. His teacher has assured me once more that he's able to read sentences on his own now. Of course, at home, he favours me pampering him, thus shows me little of what he's capable of reading, but in school apparently, he's doing better. So that's a good start then.

He also has a keen interest in numbers - number puzzles as well as simple sums. He was working on some simple addition and subtraction sums the other night and wanted me to watch him while he worked out the sums. He was using his fingers to count and just watching him do that made me proud of him. To me, it was a whole other accomplishment, a new milestone for him and proof that my lil boy really is growing up.

Academic progress aside, Big Z is getting more familiar with the concept of male and female, boys and girls, and the attraction which could very well take place between the two species. That's right. He's at THAT age. Every now and then, i'll get remarks like so from him -

"Hey Mummy ... I think I want to kiss Nakita. Coz she's a girl. And she's pretty and so cute!So i think i want to kiss her. And then she kiss me too. Together!"(Nakita's his classmate in school, and she really is pretty and cute, i must say ... hehe)

I related these statements to The Daddy. He laughed and said we should embrace it, knowing that our son is heading the right direction. Haha.

This time last year, I was busy preparing for Big Z's birthday party. To this day, I'm torn between his 3rd birthday party and his 4th birthday party as my personal favourite project. The 3rd was a polka-dot themed party, while the 4th was a pyjama party (for photos of the parties' details, check my other blog, http://mommylovespatterns.blogspot.com). I think I worked equally hard on both, but I spent much longer preparing for the pyjama party. After the party, and the tiredness that came with it, I remember telling many I had enough of themed parties and that I wouldn't be organising and hosting a party for Big Z this year. That was then. Now, as we're days to welcoming the month of June, just two months away from his 5th birthday, I'm undecided as to whether or not I should host a party for him. Of course, I'd need to be in super-efficient mode if I choose to have one for him. The realistic me is saying I won't be able to do it. The ambitious me though is saying there's this, and this and oooh ... what about this (!!) for the party theme. A dilemma I've put myself into, yes. I'll give myself till mid-June then to decide. In the event I DO decide on a party for him, it'll definitely be a much smaller one compared to all his parties thus far.

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That's Big Z then (just 4 days away from our much-needed trip away from home), and a bit of me, and Baby Z and The Daddy thrown in too. :-)

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Being a full-time stay-home mom has its obvious perks - namely, being the first (and sometimes sole) witness to your child's key milestones. And just for that simple reason, I can't imagine myself ever going back to the 'true' working life.

Having said that ... humans as we are, I think full-time stay-home moms (especially those without maids, like yours truly) do need the occasional break from the constant no-break 'career' that they have. In light of the said break, I've 'dutifully' proposed to the husband that we reward ourselves (well, OK ... i pretty much told him I need to be rewarded and treated to) once a month. So, one night a month, we'll go out for dinner. Sans our two Zs. For now, we're dedicating a Friday night, once a month. It'll be our date night, if you like. It may sound cruel, but I like to think of it as more of a positive thing. Besides, it'll only be for (at the most) 4 hours - a long dinner, dinner and a movie or dinner and an after-dinner coffee session. Our Zs will be at either grandparents' while we pretend we're young and still dating each other. Haha.

So. Any suggestions where we should have our first Friday night date then?